Using the graphical user interface

The IBM® Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface is an intuitive way to manage and control IBM Electronic Service Agent. It uses standard graphical controls to access IBM Electronic Service Agent functions and includes online help for each pane. You can access the graphical user interface on the system that is running IBM Electronic Service Agent or from any remote system that can access the same local or remote network.

Before you begin

On some systems, the firewall might block access through this port unless the -w option was used to add a firewall rule to the default firewall configuration when you are activating IBM Electronic Service Agent. To check whether the firewall port is open for remote browsers, enter the following command:

/opt/ibm/esa/bin/esafirewall status

This command displays whether IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface port has access through the firewall that is running on the system.

If the port is blocked, you can use the following command to enable access from remote systems:

/opt/ibm/esa/bin/esafirewall enable

To remove the firewall rule added by the –w option, use the following command:

/opt/ibm/esa/bin/esafirewall clear

For the NPS Survey, after you provide feedback for a single system, the feedback pane is not getting refreshed to provide feedback for the other systems. To resolve this issue in Firefox browser, go through the following steps:
  1. Open your browser and go to Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
  2. Click Manage Permissions. The Exceptions - Cookies and Site Data window is displayed.
  3. In the Address of Website, enter https://survey.medallia.eu and click Block.
  4. Click Save Changes to apply the exceptions.
  5. Access the IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface.
Note: For information on the settings of the other browsers, see NPS survey - known issue
Note: The NPS Survey window is displayed only after 30 days of initial login to the IBM Electronic Service Agent.

About this task

To access and use the IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface, follow these steps:

Procedure

  1. Open a browser and enter this web address:

    https://hostname:5024/esa

    Where hostname is the name or IP address of the system that runs IBM Electronic Service Agent.

  2. On the Welcome pane, log in to the IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface.
  3. If you receive a warning about an untrusted site certificate, accept the certificate or click Yes to proceed to the IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface.

Results

You can select from the following options to display or modify the IBM Electronic Service Agent operations for this system or partition.
Note: Select Help in the upper right corner of any of the panes to view specific information about the pane or the information to enter.

Once you log in to the IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface, click Activate ESA under Main menu.

The activation wizard takes you through the steps to activate Electronic Service Agent on your system. The activation includes specifying contact information and connectivity information to enable your system to connect to IBM support. For information, see Activating and configuring IBM Electronic Service Agent.
Note: Once you activate IBM Electronic Service Agent on this system, you can no longer see the Activate ESA option and you cannot use the Activation Wizard
After successful activation of IBM Electronic Service Agent, you can see the following menu options:
  • Main menu
    • Dashboard

      The IBM Electronic Service Agent Dashboard pane displays the graphical summary of system's health and problems of the systems that are being monitored by ESA.

    • All Systems

      The IBM Electronic Service Agent All Systems pane shows a list of systems that are discovered by IBM Electronic Service Agent. You can also view the information or list of problems for a particular system.

    • All Problems

      The IBM Electronic Service Agent All Problems pane displays list of problems that are identified by IBM Electronic Service Agent. You can also view the information of a particular problem in detail.

    • Discovery

      On the IBM Electronic Service Agent Discovery pane, you can configure the BMC, OpenBMC devices, discover multiple remote systems, verify the connectivity to a particular system, and view the discovery log details.

    • Service Information

      The Service information pane displays the type of service information that is collected by IBM Electronic Service Agent and is sent to the IBM Electronic Support website. This information includes hardware, software, and system configuration information.

      Note:
      Note: The Service Information feature is not applicable for x86 systems.
    • Activity Log

      The Activity log pane displays IBM Electronic Service Agent activity for a specified time period.

  • Settings menu.
    Select from the following options to specify or modify the IBM Electronic Service Agent settings for this system or partition.
    • Service Contact

      Use the Service Contact Settings pane to specify information about the person that an IBM Support representative can contact about a problem reported by IBM Electronic Service Agent.

    • System Location

      Use the System Location Settings pane to specify information about the physical location of the system that is being monitored by IBM Electronic Service Agent.

    • IBM ID

      Use the IBM ID Settings pane to authorize users with IBM IDs to view service information that was sent to the IBM Electronic Support website by IBM Electronic Service Agent.

    • Connectivity

      Use the Connectivity Settings pane to specify multiple connections that IBM Electronic Service Agent can use to communicate with the IBM Electronic Support website.

    • Service and Support Proxy

      Use the Service and Support Proxy Settings pane to configure this system or partition to serve as a connection point through which other systems or partitions in your network connect to the IBM Electronic Support website.

    • SNMP

      Use the SNMP Settings pane to specify the SNMP trap listener settings.

    • Problem Information

      Use the Problem Information Settings pane to enable or disable sending the extended error data automatically to IBM. By using this pane, you can set the frequency and number of retry attempts to make if automatic transmission of a service request to the IBM Electronic Support website fails.

    • Service Information

      Use the Service Information Settings pane to specify and enable the type and frequency of information to collect.

    • Operational Test
      Use the Operational Test Settings pane to enable and specify the frequency of automatic testing of the connection to IBM. You can also use this pane to run an operational test to test the connection to the IBM Electronic Support website.
      Note: The Service Information feature is not applicable for x86 systems.
    • Notifications

      Use the Notifications Settings pane to enable sending email notifications and SNMP traps to the locations that you specify.

    • Application

      Use the Application Settings pane to specify the hardware or software solution information for the system that is being monitored by IBM Electronic Service Agent and to specify the port number IBM Electronic Service Agent uses.

    • Trace Level

      Use the Trace Level Settings pane to specify the message severity level that is recorded during IBM Electronic Service Agent activity.

    • Problem Filters-Resources

      Use the Problem Filters-Resources Settings pane to specify a resource or range of resources that can be ignored by the Electronic Service Agent problem reporting function.

      Note: The Problem Filters-Resources Settings feature is not applicable for x86 systems.
    • Problem Filters-Error Codes

      Use the Problem Filters-Error Codes Settings pane to view or add the system reference codes (SRCs) that can be ignored during Electronic Service Agent problem reporting.

      Note: The Problem Filters-Error Codes Settings feature is not applicable for x86 systems.
    • UAK Management
      Use the UAK Management Settings pane to specify the message severity level that is recorded during IBM Electronic Service Agent activity.
      Note: The UAK Management settings feature is not applicable for x86 systems.
    • Systems Cleanup

      Use the Systems Cleanup pane to configure the system cleanup settings that are used by IBM Electronic Service Agent to schedule the cleanup of data belonging to remote systems such as the associated heartbeat, hardware inventory, software inventory, and problems data.

  • Tools menu
    • Export Configuration

      Export IBM Electronic Service Agent configuration to use the same contact and location information and operational settings on another system, or to save the configuration for future use on the same system.

    • Import Configuration

      Import IBM Electronic Service Agent configuration to use the same contact and location information and operational settings that is used on another system.

    • Suspend/Resume

      The Status pane shows the status of the IBM Electronic Service Agent monitoring, collecting, and reporting services. You can use this pane to suspend or resume IBM Electronic Service Agent.

      • Suspend: You cannot do the following operations when Electronic Service Agent is suspended:
        • Send the test problem.
        • Save the system location settings.
        • Delete the problems.
        • Send authorizations to the IBM ID.
        • Delete the systems.
        • Verify connectivity setting.
        • Verify connectivity and discovery of systems.
        • Run an operational test.
        • Collect the service information.
        • Import configuration settings.
        • Save the service contact settings.
        • Perform manual check on the expiration date of an update access key.
        However, the other IBM Electronic Service Agent graphical user interface functions continue to operate.
      • Resume: If IBM Electronic Service Agent is suspended, resume it to do all the operations. ESA is resumed automatically after you reboot the system or can be done through this graphical user interface function.
    • IBM Electronic Support

      Use the IBM Electronic Support pane to display and manage service requests to the IBM Electronic Support website.